St. Lad’s will not be closed down – for now at least

In February parishioners at St. Ladislaus demonstrated against a possible closing of their church. A decision about the church’s future has been put on hold.

By Charles Sercombe
The future of St. Ladislaus Church is still up in the air.
In recent months the Pope Paul II Parish Council voted to close down the church. St. Lad’s is part of the Parish, which also includes Transfiguration Church in Detroit.
That vote, however, was close, by one vote. Nevertheless, Fr. Andrew Wesley, who heads up the parish, passed on the council recommendation to the Detroit Archdiocese.
It seemed like a done deal, but some members of the parish council protested that recommendation and urged the Archdiocese to take a close look at the church’s financial picture.
So, as of now, the fate of the church is on hold, said Joseph Sobota, a member of the parish council.
He said that a final decision could be reached within the next few months.
Last February, a group of parishioners held a demonstration of support at St. Lad’s.
Protest organizer Walter Bankowski said at the time that St. Lad’s parishioners would not likely transfer to Transfiguration if their church is closed.
“This is a financially viable church,” he stressed at the demonstration.
There are about 200 parishioners there.
The closing of St. Lad’s would likely lead to the Archdiocese selling the building. The parish previously sold its school building to a charter school. Bankowski said the building sold for $500,000, but none of that money went to St. Lad’s directly.
St. Lad’s was built in 1952 at a time when Hamtramck’s population was about 50,000. Since then the city’s population has declined to about half that, although in recent years there has been a slight uptick.
Hamtramck’s newest surge of residents are mostly of the Muslim faith. It is commonly thought that the church would be sold and repurposed into a mosque.